'We Live in Time' might be waste of yours: Romance runs out of steam
"We Live In Time" is an intimate romantic romp about a British couple, Tobias (Andrew Garfield) and Almut (Florence Pugh), chronicling their relationship once they find out that Almut has ovarian cancer.
The film makes a bold structural choice by documenting bits and pieces of Almut and Tobias's relationships through a series of non-linear vignettes. The movie flashes forward and backward between the couple's lives, and you watch their picturesque relationship slowly fall apart due to the issues caused by Almut's illness.
Garfield and Pugh are the obvious selling points, and their sincere performances carry the entire film through its jumbled, but ultimately formulaic plot.
Garfield conveys an overt sense of earnestness remarkably well, making his eventual grief even more heartbreaking. Pugh also holds her own by commanding an impressive amount of strength, mentally and physically, even as her body starts deteriorating.
The film is technically competent, with cinematography that never goes beyond mediocrity. But that works for this type of film. Natural lighting and on-location shooting make the movie feel like a set of home videos or "fly on the wall" observations.
The score is also nice, with some acoustic riffs and melodies woven underneath Garfield and Pugh's conversations, making these conversations feel more emotionally resonant.
Yet, "We Live In Time" is by no means a "must-see" movie. In many ways, this just feels like a slightly more nuanced take on a story you've seen a thousand times. It's a film that can be described as "cute" and "good enough" but never transforms into something truly compelling.
If you're a fan of "tearjerkers," you'll probably have a decent time watching this with your significant other. But, at no point does this romance ever manage to truly envelop the viewer, and it likely won't stick with you after a week.
The plot feels painfully standard, and at some points, it feels like the writers intentionally avoided depicting any real drama to maintain that "quaint" aesthetic.
For instance, there's a moment in the film where it feels like Garfield's character should be wallowing in sadness, grappling with a mixture of anger, grief and guilt. Yet after a tiny fight, it feels like that plot thread gets completely discarded, and Garfield quickly returns to his usual affable self.
There's even a scene where Tobias and Almut have to explain the seriousness of Almut's condition to their child, which should be rife with compelling tragedy.
For a moment, you almost feel like the movie will grapple with something dramatic and genuinely engaging, but it just cuts to another flashback. In fact, so many moments of the film are undercut by its patchwork structure, which may very well be the point. That doesn't fix how underwhelming it feels.
An excellent romance should be compelling enough to enrapture even the most cynical and lonely person imaginable, but "We Live In Time" would most certainly bore them to tears.
This type of film relies on the viewer imbuing the characters with their own life experiences, but if you aren't in a relationship or have never dealt with this kind of grief, it doesn't really work.
On paper, this film can't really be critiqued for being offensively bad, but there's just nothing to latch onto and remember. You walk in and out of the theater with maybe a couple of tear-stained tissues and an appreciation for the smaller things in life … but that's it.
The structural shakeup and the performances are the only things "We Live In Time" has to offer, so if that doesn't interest you, don't rush to theaters to see this. If you're a fan of Garfield and Pugh, you'll have an alright time. If you need a quick date option, this works.
But if you're none of the above, your time would be better used elsewhere.
